Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics – Men's 1500 metres

Men's 1500 metres
at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
Men's 1500 metres; at the Games of the XVI Olympiad
	Olympic Athletics
Venue	Melbourne Cricket Ground
Dates	November 29 (semifinals); December 1 (final)
Competitors	37 from 22 nations
Winning time	3:41.2 OR
Medalists
	← 1952 1960 →

YouTube

Official Video @13:13

The men's

Melbourne, Australia, with the final held on Saturday, December 1, 1956.^[1] There were a total number of 37 participants from 22 nations. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. The event was won by Ron Delany of Ireland, the nation's first 1500 metres medal. The silver medalist was Klaus Richtzenhain, the only medalist in the event for the United Team of Germany. John Landy

took bronze, Australia's first medal in the event since 1896.

Summary

Among the non-qualifiers for the final were defending champion Josy Barthel, future silver medalist Michel Jazy and eventual marathon champion Mamo.

The final had twelve men toe the line. Uniquely,

Mervyn Lincoln running in front of a home crowd. Lincoln held the lead until just after the bell when he was swallowed up by a rush led by Brian Hewson. Ten men went around Lincoln and he was cooked. Klaus Richtzenhain was the next to follow with Halberg making one more rush down the backstretch before he too was cooked. From tenth place, Ron Delany began picking off runners on the backstretch, as Halberg slowed, Delany used the traffic to step into fifth place at the start of the final turn. Passing in lane 2, Delany ran around the field, catching Hewson at the head of the straightaway. Hewson looked helplessly at Delany as he passed. Fighting out of the group Delany passed at the start of the turn, another home town favorite John Landy

chased from behind, still in sixth at the head of the straight. With a stiff, upright sprinting style, Delany pulled away from the field. Hewson struggled down the final straight, watching Richtzenhain run past on the outside. Landy made a late final charge in lane 3 but just came up short in trying to catch Richtzenhain for silver.

Background

This was the 13th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Two finalists from the 1952 Games returned: gold medalist Josy Barthel of Luxembourg and eighth-place finisher Ingvar Ericsson of Sweden. The world record had changed hands six times since the 1952 Games; three of the men who had had it but were surpassed (László Tábori of Hungary, John Landy of Australia, and Gunnar Nielsen of Denmark) competed in Melbourne, along with the man who still held it (István Rózsavölgyi of Hungary). Five men had run a sub-four minute mile; the first to do so (Roger Bannister of Great Britain, who had finished fourth in this event in 1952) had retired, but three of those men (Tábori, Landy, and Brian Hewson, also of Great Britain) competed.^[2]

Ethiopia and Pakistan each made their first appearance in the event; Germany competed as the United Team of Germany for the first time. The United States made its 13th appearance, the only nation to have competed in the men's 1500 metres at each Games to that point.

Competition format

After a one-Games stint at three rounds in 1952, the 1956 competition returned to two rounds. There were three heats with 15 runners each (before withdrawals), with the top four runners in each advancing to the typical 12-man final race.^[2]^[3]

Records

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1956 Summer Olympics.

World record	István Rózsavölgyi (HUN)	3:40.6	Tata, Hungary	3 August 1956
Olympic record	Josy Barthel (LUX)	3:45.2	Helsinki, Finland	26 July 1952

During the final, Ron Delany set a new Olympic record at 3:41.2. The top ten men in the final all surpassed the old Olympic record; the eleventh man matched it.

Schedule

All times are

UTC+10

)

Date	Time	Round
Thursday, 29 November 1956	16:30	Semifinals
Saturday, 1 December 1956	16:15	Final

Results

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Klaus Richtzenhain	United Team of Germany	3:46.6	Q
2	Stanislav Jungwirth	Czechoslovakia	3:46.6	Q
3	Ian Boyd	Great Britain	3:47.0	Q
4	Murray Halberg	New Zealand	3:47:2	Q
5	István Rozsavolgyi	Hungary	3:49:4
6	André Ballieux	Belgium	3:49:8
7	Michel Jazy	France	3:50:0
8	Ted Wheeler	United States	3:50:1
9	Jonas Pipynė	Soviet Union	3:50:6
10	Josy Barthel	Luxembourg	3:50:6
11	Mamo Wolde	Ethiopia	3:51:0
—	Jim Bailey	Australia	DNS
	Phol Jaiswang	Thailand	DNS
	Dimitrios Konstantinidis	Greece	DNS
	Joseph Narmath	Liberia	DNS

Semifinal 2

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mervyn Lincoln	Australia	3:45:4	Q
2	Kenneth Wood	Great Britain	3:46:6	Q
3	Ron Delany	Ireland	3:47.4	Q
4	Laszlo Tabori	Hungary	3:48.0	Q
5	Ingvar Ericsson	Sweden	3:49:0
6	Yevgeny Sokolov	Soviet Union	3:49:2
7	Evangelos Depastas	Greece	3:52:0
8	Olavi Salsola	Finland	3:55:0
9	Günther Dohrow	United Team of Germany	3:58:0
10	Ramón Sandoval	Chile	3:58:1
11	Donald Bowden	United States	3:59.7
12	Emile Leva	Belgium	4:06:0
13	Sank Ok-Sim	South Korea	4:09.0
14	Mahmoud Jan	Pakistan	4:15:0
15	Somnuek Srisombat	Thailand	4:30:0

Semifinal 3

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Neville Scott	New Zealand	3:48:0	Q
2	Brian Hewson	Great Britain	3:48:0	Q
3	John Landy	Australia	3:48.6	Q
4	Gunnar Nielsen	Denmark	3:48.6	Q
5	Dan Waern	Sweden	3:48:8
6	Gianfranco Baraldi	Italy	3:52:0
7	Sergey Soukhanov	Soviet Union	3:53:0
8	Jerome Walters	United States	3:55:7
9	Georgios Papavassiliou	Greece	3:57:0
10	Eduardo Fontecilla	Chile	3:58:6
—	Siegfried Herrmann	United Team of Germany	DNF
—	Muhammad Anwar	Pakistan	DNS
	Audun Boysen	Norway	DNS
	George Johnson	Liberia	DNS
	Veliša Mugoša	Yugoslavia	DNS

Overall results for semifinals

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
1	Mervyn Lincoln	Australia	3:45:4	Q
2	Stanislav Jungwirth	Czechoslovakia	3:46.6	Q
	Klaus Richtzenhain	United Team of Germany	3:46.6	Q
	Kenneth Wood	Great Britain	3:46:6	Q
5	Ian Boyd	Great Britain	3:47.0	Q
6	Murray Halberg	New Zealand	3:47:2	Q
7	Ron Delany	Ireland	3:47.4	Q
8	Brian Hewson	Great Britain	3:48:0	Q
	Neville Scott	New Zealand	3:48:0	Q
	Laszlo Tabori	Hungary	3:48.0	Q
11	John Landy	Australia	3:48.6	Q
11	Gunnar Nielsen	Denmark	3:48.6	Q
13	Dan Waern	Sweden	3:48:8
14	Ingvar Ericsson	Sweden	3:49:0
15	Yevgeny Sokolov	Soviet Union	3:49:2
16	István Rozsavolgyi	Hungary	3:49:4
17	André Ballieux	Belgium	3:49:8
18	Michel Jazy	France	3:50:0
19	Ted Wheeler	United States	3:50:1
20	Jonas Pipynė	Soviet Union	3:50:6
20	Josy Barthel	Luxembourg	3:50:6
22	Mamo Wolde	Ethiopia	3:51:0
23	Gianfranco Baraldi	Italy	3:52:0
23	Evangelos Depastas	Greece	3:52:0
25	Sergey Soukhanov	Soviet Union	3:53:0
26	Olavi Salsola	Finland	3:55:0
27	Jerome Walters	United States	3:55:7
28	Georgios Papavassiliou	Greece	3:57:0
29	Günther Dohrow	United Team of Germany	3:58:0
30	Ramón Sandoval	Chile	3:58:1
31	Eduardo Fontecilla	Chile	3:58:6
32	Donald Bowden	United States	3:59.7
33	Emile Leva	Belgium	4:06:0
34	Sank Ok-Sim	South Korea	4:09.0
35	Mahmoud Jan	Pakistan	4:15:0
36	Somnuek Srisombat	Thailand	4:30:0
—	Siegfried Herrmann	United Team of Germany	DNF
—	Muhammad Anwar	Pakistan	DNS
	Jim Bailey	Australia	DNS
	Audun Boysen	Norway	DNS
	Phol Jaiswang	Thailand	DNS
	George Johnson	Liberia	DNS
	Dimitrios Konstantinidis	Greece	DNS
	Veliša Mugoša	Yugoslavia	DNS
	Joseph Narmath	Liberia	DNS

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Ron Delany	Ireland	3:41.2	OR
	Klaus Richtzenhain	United Team of Germany	3:42.0
	John Landy	Australia	3:42.0
4	Laszlo Tabori	Hungary	3:42.4
5	Brian Hewson	Great Britain	3:42.6
6	Stanislav Jungwirth	Czechoslovakia	3:42.6
7	Neville Scott	New Zealand	3:42.8
8	Ian Boyd	Great Britain	3:43.0
9	Kenneth Wood	Great Britain	3:44.3
10	Gunnar Nielsen	Denmark	3:45.0
11	Murray Halberg	New Zealand	3:45.2
12	Mervyn Lincoln	Australia	3:51.9

References

^ "Athletics at the 1956 Melbourne Games: Men's 1500 metres". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2017.
^ ^a ^b "1500 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 14 August 2020.
^ Official Report, p. 294.

External links

"Official Report" (PDF). 1958. p. 296. Retrieved 2 April 2017.
Results

[SR-1] "Athletics at the 1956 Melbourne Games: Men's 1500 metres". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 28 October 2017.

[Olympedia-2] "1500 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 14 August 2020.

[OR294-3] Official Report, p. 294.

[1]

[2]

[3]

Athletics at the 1956 Summer Olympics

Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men
800 m	men
1500 m	men
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
80 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Javelin throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Combined events
Decathlon	men
v t e

v t e 1500 metres at the Olympic Games
Summary
Men	1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020
Women	1896 1900 1904 1908 1912 1920 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 2012 2016 2020